August 14th Opening

Our "Lovely...as a TREE" show, August 14th through October 9th. Sixty one artists exhibit 150 pieces!

Behind the Scenes at the Gallery Della-Piana

(Trust us, this is the easiest part.)

We're having a crazy week here at the Gallery Della-Piana. All of us are getting our hands dirty and finding wall paint on our clothes as we prepare for our seventeenth show (already!): "as Lovely as a Tree." The final jurying resulted in 146 pieces...from our largest open-call-for-entries yet! To celebrate this, we decided to refresh our "3rd Room" gallery space in order to adequately display all of the wonderful pieces of tree art. Additionally, due to the number and sheer sizes of many of the works, the show is being hung in Salon Style...the art will cover the walls nearly from floor to ceiling!

The show opening is this Saturday, August 14th, from 4-6pm, with a short poetry reading at 5. It happens to be a Tax-Free Holiday here in Massachusetts, in case you want to have some fun some shopping at our housemate Seams after enjoying our art and poetry. :)

See you then!
-Elissa and the gals

Over 160 Entries being Juried for TREES' show!

Well, we're guessing that every 'call-for-entries' show will just keep getting Bigger. Even though I held back many potential entries at the signing, we still brought in SO many that we KNOW that some will have to be put aside. We're in the process of turning our 2nd floor "over-Flow" gallery room into a well-lit, beautifully painted ROOM THREE Gallery, to accomodate the Theme Show selections in the strongest way, but we must eliminate perhaps 20 pieces. At this count, the number of Artists is also at an all-time high...57! We'll have our Final Number of pieces we can hang by this weekend, the 7th. We'll call the artists to alert them, then, and the art could be picked up any day the week before Opening, as we'll be here working from 11AM to6PM each Day!...or one could wait until the 14th.

Meanwhile, we're thrilled with the turn-out, and with meeting so many 'new' artists, and with the wonderful array of approaches to the subject. Didn't expect so many Sculptures! There are several that are Figurative, and a few that are even whimsical.

Mailed out our lovely Post card yesterday, designed by new Intern, Becca Buonopane...using her powerful photograph. Announcing the Opening - August 14th, from 4 to 6; with a short Poetry event at 5PM.

We have also sent off all our Digital Pages of the original BOOK for the "as Lovely as a Tree" show, which includes the Art work and/or Poetry of 20 artist friends of the Gallery, as well as some classic favorite poems and quotes.

This book will be in a surprising format that requires a lot of handwork from our team of four, at the last minute, to have it ready for the Opening.

We expect a CROWD, and will hope for a cooler day than the BIRD SHOW opening!

Larry Scanlon Bird Carving Demonstration/"BIRD-Watching"!

Larry was a charismatic speaker/demonstrator, on the 21st of July, when he brought in his equipment and several of his 'start-to-finish' projects. He worked on the spot, while fielding questions and popping jokes. A big moment was when he finally placed an Eye into his shore bird carving...it was as if it literally came to life. We were all impressed with his skill and the curious techniques employed; the raising of the wood grain by Burning; the uses of Dentist tools (yes, it sounded just like a Dentist's Office!); and his brilliant invention of a mini-roller-paper-pallette!!

Also, be sure to stop by for the "BIRD-Watching" exhibit before it closes on July 24th! You don't want to miss this!

Elissa Della-Piana featured in Wenham Museum Design Show

Design Show transforms museum into favorite spaces

Excerpted from the article by Stephanie Silverstein

Interior designers from Hamilton, Wenham, the North Shore and beyond have transformed the Wenham Museum into 15 favorite spaces, showcasing their inspirations for North Shore life, past and present, encompassing the mission of the Wenham Museum.

The designers were each given approximately an 8-by-8-foot area of space in the museum--either in Burnham Hall, the Thompson Gallery, the lobby or even the coat room--and transformed it into a favorite space, inspired by North Shore life and the mission of the Wenham Museum: to protect, preserve, and interpret the history and culture of Boston's North Shore, domestic life and the artifacts of childhood.

Elissa Della-Piana, of Gallery Della-Piana in Wenham, transformed a tenXten' space in the Wenham Museum's lobby into an artist's studio corner, inspired by the Audubon Reserve in Wenham, one of Della-Piana's favorite places on the North Shore. The space, filled with nature collections and surrounded by artists' tools such as an antique easel with Della-Piana's artwork hanging on the walls, mingles nature and art.

"I spend so much time walking through the Audubon Reserve, which is right off Cherry Street in Wenham, and I simply love the place," Della-Piana said. The drawings in her vignette are some of the work she has created while in the Audubon Reserve. "This is my art, and this is the source, sort of the Audubon Reserve coming through the walls of the studio."

From the Hamilton Wenham Chronicle (Thurs May 20 2010)

My recent Installation at The Wenham Museum's DESIGN SHOW

An important Annual Event at the Museum is a juried invitational to no more than 15 interior designers to install and show-case (and sell) a room-sized diarama...this year, on the theme of "Favorite Places on the North Shore". Speakers, Tour Guides and Celebrities; with Host of 'This Old House', presiding. I chose to create an 'artist's studio next to the Audubon Reserve in Wenham', with the walls disappearing into the paths through the woods. All the drawings were done in the Reserve.

HOURS: Thurs, Fri, & Sat, 11AM to 6PM...or when posted for special openings.

The Murphy-Krosoczka show is packed up now. We still have SIGNED copies of many of their most popular books in the Gallery.

ORIGINAL BOOK ART...Jarrett and Kelly. Meet KELLY Feb 27, 4 - 6; Meet Jarrett, Mar 5, 4:30 -6.

COME IN TO SEE our new Gallery-Mate, B.J. Faulkner's Lively and Colorful Action Paintings of European Scenes.

Now that we are in the habit of designing a special BOOK for each show - not a catalogue OF the show - we have created the "Bird...watching" Book. As usual, it's my new FAVORITE, and will be 24 pages on fine stock with some wonderful images of birds, nests, eggs, as well as Profiles of some of history's great Bird Artists, and a few powerful stories and poems. We've numbered each book in our limited edition: #1 to #35. Inside we've "tipped-in" a special print (that is, it's just glued in on the bound book page) that I found in a Dickensian book and print shop in London, of the illustrated heads of British birds, and on another page I've glued-in an actual Feather.

NOW THAT WE HAVE BEAUTIFUL WEATHER AGAIN, the gallery-garden update is that all our Tulips came back, in waves of earliest Reds, then many shades of pinks, cerises, and whites, and lastly, the almost black tulips, Now faded past, the beds are full of Lambs'Ear, giant Clovers, Day lilies, Snow-in-Summer, and Buttercups. The foundation bushes of Holly, Rhododendron, Red Barberry, and Azalea are flourishing - the White Azalea was COVERED in spectacular blooms. Now the fat buds of the White Roses are ready to open.

KAREN WATSON'S exquisite collaged writing table dominates the entrance to TABLE MANNERS

JOHN PAQUETTE'S 'DUOMO' table, assembled in reconstructed woods is available in many color combinations of 'naturals', stains, and blacks. 21"x21"x27"tall, $350.

" TABLE MANNERS" Our new exhibit...a group show of 25 artists...Will open on DECEMBER 17th, from 4 to 6 PM, with a holiday party. The show will continue into February; closing day is on Feb. 13th.

Artists have created 2-D and 3-D works that derive from 'Tables'...Still-Lifes, Table-Tops, and TABLES as furniture and sculpture.

Here's our Artist list, alphabetically:

Donna Baldassari, Suzanne Barnes, Emile Bellott, Sheila Boss-Concannon, Allan Brockenbrough, Joseph Capachietti, James Chisholm, Eva Cincotta, Karyl Hayes, Law Hamilton, Michael Hamilton, Marcia Hermann, Mark Hoffmann, Josie Lawrence, Fred Lynch, John Paquette, Michael Pasquale, David Piemonte, Terry Slater, Laura Elkins Stover, Karen Watson, and Alan Witschonke.

MARYLIN HAFNER CHILDREN'S BOOK ART RETROSPECTIVE,

October/November 2009
Marylin Hafner - Illustrator, created thousands of elegant and rather nutty drawings for miriad publishers and authors--most notably for Cricket and Ladybug magazines, and award winning children's books.
Her ink and pencil line-control was perfectly paired with each story's whimsey, and she had a brilliant hand with watercolors.

But Marylin herself said, "my best work has been an enormous output of Unsolicited Mail"...so as a tribute to her indefatigable inventiveness and relentless challenges to the Post Office, we presented a keepsake collection of her treasured* letters and envelopes--an ephemera of Salutes, Sharings, gossamer affronts, and "Irritations" (her word), couched in an anglophilic prose of langorous trivia, frenetic opines, and outright silliness.

We sold many copies of our privately published book of some of her 'immortal' mailings ...see below for a preview pic. The books sell for $30.00, and I've mailed them out around the country for an additional $2. Contact me if you need a copy...
-Elissa Della-Piana

The Gallery Della-Piana

*Thanks, everyone.














That's Abby and Doug Newton on the left, Marylin's daughter and son-in-law, at the opening on October 25th. We had a wonderful crowd of Marylin's family, dear friends, editors, and art lovers. We served Halloween treats in honor of Marylin's favorite holiday!

Visitors were charmed and fascinated by "Room A," which was filled with her children's books and magazine art, but we heard shrieks of laughter from "Room B," in which hung the exhibit of her outrageous illustrated mail!

The Gallery Della-Piana is located at 152R Main Street, Wenham MA, 01984. (978)468-1944. We are open from 11-6 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and on Tuesdays by appointment only. You can contact us at edpgarden@yahoo.com.